"A story of the perception, accommodation, co-creation, and, occasionally, critique of the New Living. . . . The author has turned to hitherto under-utilised sources that are often dismissed as products of state propaganda: advice literature, contemporary press and published memoirs."
"A significant addition to North Korean studies. . . [it] plays an important role in contesting the Western caricature of North Korea as a rogue nuclear state that is devoid of real people or a distinctive socialist culture."
— American Historical Review
"North Korea’s Mundane Revolution shows deftness in solving interpretive puzzles. It conveys thoughtful ruminations over the printed materials being analyzed."
— Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
"North Korea's Mundane Revolution is an intellectual game changer—a brilliant, completely original approach to researching and writing North Korean history."—Carter J. Eckert, author of Park Chung Hee and Modern Korea: The Roots of Militarism, 1866–1945
"A bold and exhilarating work of history. Andre Schmid tells the story of the part that ordinary people played in fleshing out the unique socialist modernity practiced in North Korea. Destined to be a classic in the field, this book is an empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated account of social life in North Korea in one of the most consequential moments of its history. Utterly compelling."—Ruth Barraclough, author of Factory Girl Literature: Sexuality, Violence, and Representation in Industrializing Korea
"Authoritative, engaging, and the product of a lifetime of research on nationhood, North Korea's Mundane Revolution dispenses with tired narratives that reduce the country's history to bizarre tales of the Kim dynasty, state propaganda, and inherent brutality. Drawing on an impressive array of printed materials, this study deeply textures North Korea's socialist revolution, untangles the myths that shroud Cold War ideology, and drives the final nails into the old totalitarian model. This stunning book transcends simplistic portrayals of North Korea, immersing readers in a nuanced exploration of this enigmatic nation."—Theodore Jun Yoo, author of The Koreas: The Birth of Two Nations Divided
